The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1887-02-27
RANDOM NOTES.

know nothing more calculated to exhaust
ones nervous system than trying to get through
a crowded street in hurry. And of all impenc-
trable street crowds my experience has been that,
with the single exception of Baltimore, the worst
are to be encountered in Washington. Il would
as leave have Broadway crowded us deserted
when making my way along 1t on foot, no mat
ter how great my hurry; for you will always
have with you there battalions of men In as big
n hurry as yourself moving smoothly in the same
direction. And men and women who habitually
walk on Broadway observe the rules of the road
as part of their daily timc-saving and money
making routine; so that those going down town
rush along with minimum of friction on one
hand. while those going up town do likewise on
the other.
But comers and poers in a Washington crowd
mcander all over the sidewalks. broad though
they be. and to one pers on with definite objcc-
tive point in view, there seems to be dozen
loafers or promenadcrs, bent only on killing such
time ns the Lord has mistakenly granted them
and getting in the way of others who are trying
to utilize theirs. On pleasant afternoon, when
the girls are out to show their good clothes and
the boys are out to them. especially If the af.
| ternoon be that of holiday nothing can he more
productive of stlll-born profanity eNasperation
and nervous prostration than an cndcavor tC
make ones way with expedition up or down the
/
ably, male sex maunder, with half their feeble in
tellccts absorbed in complacent self-contcmpla
tion. the other half put forth In simpering, semi
contcmptuous "sizing up" of the iddy gidots O
/ the female sex who jc rkily parade up and dowG
nursing the ritiful delusion that they are max
| ing tremendous impression. They look this way
and that, and every way but ahead. loll all ovei
| the sidewalk as If they owned II and the other
people were trespassers, and generally make OF
| themselves confoundcd nusances. Some of The
females are If anything worse than the males
Nothing can exceed the flamboyant sellshness
1 with which qunrtettc of the former will sauntel
along. four abreast, sercncly regardless of the
| rights of other pedestrians, and challenging al
who have better use for their time than them
selves with looks that say plainly ms words, Sir
you nre no gentlemen, oryou would not presum,
to interrupt lady while she is making n con
founded toy of herself"
These females, for the most part, Hru bread uno
butter misses who have acquired the tnpdoodl
idea that II girl is never so attractive in the eye
of "A man ms when she is making u fool of hcrscl
and that no man can be gentleman who doesn
compliment her on the success with which sh
does IL. on the Avenue any pleasant afternoo
scores of pretty girls may be seen practically d.
monstratinn that this is the sort of ideas whic
FIJI their narrow little heads. Up and down the
tramp from New York avenue to Ninth stree
over and over again, scattering their smi
right and left on the sweet young men WI
smile and bow SO cflusively on them, all Il
while thinking what lovely time they are ha
ing and how delicious 1t is to know SO many
the boys. Meanwhile what are the boys sayir
l among themselves as they bow and snilcr
nine cases out of ten things not at all comp
mcntary to the young ladies. frequently not
for young ladies' ears to hcar-things which. b
, ing lightly tossed from mouth to mouth. gather
trace of venom by each repetition, and quick
, grow rank enough to blast the blush rose
maiden reputation.
2, About as big n thing as looms on the horizon
. the small city is the itinerant theatrical manage
. and the advance agent is but q few sizes smalle
s But when the average theatrical man strik
r Washington, small town though we be in the dr.
. matte point of view he finds himself dwindlil
away in importance In q manner perplcXing al
painful to his commonly well-dcvelopcd sen
y of sclf-conscquencc. We have so many big INT
l, and big things of our own, you SEQ. our admir-
n tion doesn't hold out.
,s -,
II The theatrical people feel this especially
their relations with the press. Their cOnsta
- complaint is that the Washington newspapers a
e more niggardly with them than any others in t
y country. And 1 think this Is true of the da
papers, and hope to hear it repeated until mai
gers of trashy ATTRACTIONS learn that washn
ton is good place to leave out of their roui
y. entirely But the trouble is, good and bad d
- treated almost alike by the daily papers here,
W much space being devoted to demonstrating I
~ worthlcssness of THE Darncd Stocking" Harl
~ Choyts latest arrangement of variety acts, as
II analyzing the merits of the American Opera Co
H. pany's performance of Faust" This is the
H. of Journalism which don't pretend TO und
~, stand. hut then not much harm is done, for oil
o "stickful" or SO is given to either. Whether
~ audience is made mp of 900 of the most int
~ gent and cultivated people of the city, or of
III or seven hundred whose tastes have not been
We veopcd beyond the "Darned Stocking stage
C. result Is the same.